My personal reporting hack is to channel a weather report, because you get the core facts you need without unnecessary detail.
If it’s going to be sunny with moderate temps for the foreseeable future, few people will stumble over delivery. However, this objectivity becomes essential and potentially lifesaving in the case of, say, a hurricane.
Think about it: you’re not likely to see a reporter or government official look panicked and scream “take cover!” They’ll speak in an authoritative tone and tell you the strength, severity, projected landfall, and likely timeline, along with any required or recommended actions.
Here’s an example of a news segment covering Hurricane Ida’s approach toward southern Louisiana in 2021. The news anchor and Parish President cover severity, storm metrics, evacuation zones, and shelters of last resort in a factual tone in just 3 and a half minutes.
While this is an extreme example, it illustrates the principle. You may not ever report on a hurricane, but you’ll almost certainly have bad news at some point. Establishing a reliable, trustworthy tone will pay off later when you do have to share suboptimal results.
Does this mean you can’t show any personality? No, of course not. If you’re presenting at All Hands, it helps to be personable. If you’re sending an investor report, your funders expect to hear your voice, not something that sounds like it came from an AI bot.
Common Issues
These are the most common problems I’ve seen in progress updates (across all levels!):
Burying the headline
Writing a novel
Editorializing about team performance
Being vague about problems
Irregular/surprise updates
A Simple Reporting Framework
To avoid these issues, make sure the core report piece of your messaging is:
Objective
Concise
Informative
Truthful
Consistent
Let’s unpack what this means.
Objective
Write as if you’re a bystander and not emotionally involved. This exercise will help you step out of any feelings you have and look at the facts from the perspective of a dispassionate observer. This will reduce defensiveness and allow your readers to draw their own conclusions, which increases trustworthiness.
This approach works for good or bad news: you’ll share wins without overselling and communicate problems without catastrophizing.
Concise
To capture and hold attention, use as few words as possible and avoid lengthy sentences. When I see a long, rambling update, not only will I not read it, I’ll also worry the reporter doesn’t have a firm grasp on the topic.
You’ll also want to write at the level of your audience—here are a few examples:
PMs communicating with the project team: tactical decisions; blockers; new requests from leadership; cross-team handoffs
PMs reporting up to their org or manager: quick recap of the project goals and how it fits into org priorities; progress against milestones; requests for resourcing or support; risks or blockers with mitigations
Execs reporting at the company level: reiteration of big picture goals along with the why and how that benefits the team; progress made; challenges/how these are being addressed
Founders or CEOs reporting to investors: financial health and runway; progress against key metrics; strategic decisions, risks and mitigation plans; team updates (key hires, departures); specific asks for investor support
Informative
Provide specific, relevant information, and don’t use acronyms or technical jargon. And don’t bury the lede! Consider the top-level info your audience wants to know and put it up front.
Here’s an example of a project-level update:
Project X, which aims to decrease customer churn by resolving high-revenue customer requests, is on track for an April 15 launch. We’re at risk if legal review takes >2 weeks, but could ship by the end of March with additional platform engineering support.
And an investor-level update:
We have $2.3M cash on hand with $150K/month burn, or 15 months of runway
Monthly recurring revenue grew 20% in Q3 to $500k, with churn dropping from 6% to 3%
We signed 3 enterprise deals; average size is up 24% from Q2
We’re exploring a pivot from self-serve to a sales-led GTM strategy, based on customer feedback
We’re looking for guidance on the GTM pivot and referrals for the VP Engineering role
Truthful
You can deliver perfect results for months or years, write beautifully phrased updates, and be well-liked by all, but the moment you omit or minimize critical information, you will no longer be trusted. Not only does this destroy your credibility, it prevents you from getting the help you need to solve the problem, ensuring it will compound.
You don’t want to induce panic, but this is where the objective tone comes into play. Lead with the facts, explain the impact, state what you’re doing about it, and be specific about any help you need.
Consistent
This factor is often underrated! If you set the tone early and report on a regular cadence, you’re building professional equity. If (when) things go wrong, your audience will take you seriously and default to trust—because you’ve been showing them all along that you are trustworthy.
Contrast this with the stakeholder who reports sporadically: when people don’t hear consistent updates, they’ll fill in the gaps with assumptions—which are rarely generous.
Why This Matters
High-quality updates build credibility, and consistent communication creates psychological safety. Bad updates waste time and can actually undermine your efforts.
Navigating startup chaos?
I work with early stage companies on short-term, high-stakes engagements like rapid scale-ups, post-layoff chaos, and regulatory scrutiny.
I've always believed bad news and potential risk should be delivered as early as you possibly can. This gives a great objective framework to do that in a way everyone can appropriately prepare.